An Investigation into the use of the Marketing Mix in the Food and Beverage Industry in Grahamstown, South Africa: An Exploratory Study

Investigative research was conducted in the Grahamstown-West district’s food and beverage industry to investigate the use of the marketing mix by existing businesses in attracting customers. The motivation behind this study comes from our first-hand encounters and transactions of food and beverage outlets over our time in Grahamstown. From this, an interest in the day-to-day interactions and operations of local food and beverage outlets developed and we grew curious in finding out and exploring how this industry uses the extended marketing mix (more specifically the four P’s) to maintain a firm customer base and potentially aquire the student market. A questionnaire was used to collect data from selected businesses to understand their use of the marketing mix elements in their operations. The food and beverage industry within Grahamstown is highly competitive, where existing business need to have good variety in their offerings, aligned their prices to their desired target market, incorporated advertising strategies to their operations, and looked to the location and the accessibility of their business as a potential competitive advantage.